


in dreams, i meet you in warm conversation

by RaindropsOnRoses



Series: sad beautiful tragic [1]
Category: The Daevabad Trilogy - S. A. Chakraborty
Genre: Angst and Porn, Empire of gold spoilers, F/M, LOOK I CANNOT STRESS ENOUGH THAT THIS IS EMPIRE OF GOLD SPOILERS, Soft smut lol, Spoilers for Empire of Gold
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-30
Updated: 2020-06-30
Packaged: 2021-03-04 21:55:22
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,596
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25003495
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/RaindropsOnRoses/pseuds/RaindropsOnRoses
Summary: "We both wakeIn lonely bedsIn different cities."Dara comes back, for a time.
Relationships: Dar - Relationship, Darayavahoush e-Afsin/Nahri e-Nahid
Series: sad beautiful tragic [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1897300
Comments: 2
Kudos: 13





	in dreams, i meet you in warm conversation

**Author's Note:**

> I CANNOT STRESS THIS ENOUGH.  
> THIS FIC IS POST EMPIRE OF GOLD AND SPOILS IT. 
> 
> Do not read this if you haven't read Empire of Gold or don't wish to read smut.

It was the third night after they found the first vessel. Three nights since the scout had returned, rushing straight to the hospital and pressing the vessel into Nahri’s hand. Just the single golden bracelet. She didn’t know who the vessel contained but she knew that they were home now and that she would look after them. She’d held it with reverence in both hands, letting the moment’s weight settle over her for a few moments.

After the first two scouting missions had provided no joy, Nahri had expected a similar outcome this time. She hated to admit it but her skin hadn’t itched in anticipation this time as it had the first two times. Her eyes hadn’t been drawn to the doors of the ward she was working every other minute. She was shamefully losing hope. Hope that was now restored in this single plain circle of gold, jewel set at its centre.

They’d taken the vessel to the Temple, returning them to the small room they’d been stolen from. She’d felt sad to leave them there, alone. Once the room had been filled with companions in slumber, now an empty chamber with that small, ancient fire atlar for warmth. Despite Kartir’s assurances that it was the best place for them, Nahri lingered a little in the hallway before finally finding the strength to drag herself away.

She supposed that it was no surprise that finding the vessel had set her thoughts on Dara. To know that he had held that same bracelet in his hands made Nahri’s heart wince, knowing that was the only way that they would be connected, through the ghosts of fingertips. She imagined him placing the vessel in the cave with the same reverence with which she’d held it days later, how tightly he’d clutched it at first.

It was summer and it was hot, even at night. That wasn’t unusually for Nahri, having lived through the Eqyptian summers but this was sticky heat that made it hard to sleep. Or at least, it made a nice excuse for insomnia as she thought back to the vessel and the man who’d brought it to her. She lay on her side, tangled in her bedsheets and thought. Sometimes the thoughts were so vivid, she could swear she could hear Dara’s voice.

“Nahri.”

No, wait, that was his voice. And a hand on her shoulder, warming her through. Nahri’s eyes fluttered open and she lifted her head to look over her shoulder, expecting to see nothing but the open window of her bedroom. Expecting that she was imagining it, that exhaustion from her day at the hospital was mixing with the heat to mess with her mind. She expected that she would shake her head, tell herself to stop being so silly and go to sleep.

Instead she found herself staring at the man she’d thought she’d never see again. He hadn’t changed in the years since she’d last seen him, exactly as he left. She blinked and stared at him in shock. “Dara?” She asked. He didn’t offer any response other than a smirk as Nahri sat up in bed, scrambling to put herself tight. “H-How? How are you here?” She asked in gentle whispers, placing her hands on his forearms to prove to herself that he was flesh.

“Shush, don’t worry about that now.” Dara told her gently, his voice soothing. He pulled his arms back until their hands were tangled together. Nahri was still shocked, squeezing his hands so tightly that she thought he might protest. He allowed her a few more moments of adjustment to the impossibility in front of her before speaking again. “How are you, little thief?” He asked affectionately.

Nahri blinked. “How am I? Is that really the best you can do? You’re losing your touch, Afshin.” She asked, raising an eyebrow. The playful use of their old names for one another, their fingers knotted together, it all felt intoxicatingly familiar. “You’ve been gone for years, I never thought I’d see you again and all you can say is ‘How are you’.” She muttered under her breath, almost to herself, letting the ache of his absence seep into her words.

Dara’s eyes creased sadly to hear such emotion in her words, letting go of one of her hands to take her chin between a thumb and finger, encouraging her to look at him. “I wish I could tell you everything I’ve seen, all I’ve done. I wish that I could hear the no doubt endless tales of your life since I left. I would let you speak until the dawn breaks and the sun sets again.” He assured her softly. “But I don’t have much time, little thief.” He explained softly.

“Why are you here then?” Nahri asked quietly, as if speaking too loud would break this moment. The entire city seemed silent, holding its collective breath to make this minute, this second last longer. She already knew that she would get no answers on how he passed the veil and into the city, she would just have to enjoy that he had managed it by whatever means.

“I wanted to see you, I needed to know that you were....” He spoke carefully, the warmth of his skin on her chin mixing with her blush. He trailed off, looking away for a moment before returning his eyes to hers. “I have thought of you often.” He added.

“Me too.” She admitted, for the first time. Nahri had never told anyone about the countless times her thoughts had wandered to Dara, afraid to upset anyone or turn over rocks best left undisturbed. She had thought that it would pass in time, that as the initial ache of his departure softened into a familiar bruise, her thoughts of him wouldn’t invoke such powerful emotions. No such thing had happened. “We found the vessel. It’s safe.” She remembered in a rush.

“I’m glad, I know you’ll keep them safe.” He assured her, moving his hand to cup her jawline, his thumb brushing aside some of the hair that had stuck to her forehead in the summer’s heat.

“I don’t know how to release them, Dara, I’ve tried and I’ve tried to find a way but we can’t.” She confessed, her eyes brimming with the frustrations of the last few years. They hadn’t waited for a vessel to begin their research on how to release them without a relic. Countless hours in the library, in communications with Issa in Ta Ntry, nothing. “I’m scared they’ll stay there forever. That you’re out there for nothing, that they’ll spend forever in that one room.” She told him, her words tripping over one another to get out, grateful for an understanding ear.

Dara shushed her softly and moved a little closer, the heat of his body as comforting as a campfire. Despite her fears that Dara would disappear if she took her eyes off him, Nahri closed her eyes for a few moments, tears slipping down her cheeks. She didn’t sob, the tears silent as they dripped onto her bedsheets. “Not everything can be achieved in the blink of an eye, little thief.” He assured her softly as he pressed his forehead to hers.

Nahri let out a huff of a breath. “Easy for you to say.” She grumbled. Dara, after all, had much more time available to his mission than Nahri had to hers.

At that, the Daeva chuckled and pulled back to kiss the centre of her forehead. “There’s the snippy little con artist I remember.” He muttered against her skin. He pulled back once again and his thumbs were coming to brush her tears away. Nahri allowed her eyes to open, her vision blurring for a second before refocusing on the man in front of her. “I believe that you can find a way, you have defeated every obstacle in your path so far. This is just another.” He assured her softly, his face illuminated by the moonlight filtering in through the window.

“This is just another.” She agreed softly. Nahri thought of the obstacle that kept them separated, how she would not overcome that one. Yet, here they were together, for an unknown amount of time, she thought. Perhaps some obstacles were surmountable for only a time and they would have to be satisfied with that. “Dara…” She whispered softly.

“Yes?” He asked.

She straightened her back to make herself taller enough to kiss him, her hands moving to cup his neck. For the quickest of flashes, Nahri was back in that cave, twenty years old and listening to the rain pour outside. She swore she could almost hear the rain patter across the windowsill for a second. Then she was back in this body, this time and Dara was still here.

He responded to her kiss with the same intensity as he had all those years ago. His hands came to her waist to lift her slightly into the kiss. Her hands slipped from his throat to his scalp, tangling her fingers in his hair. She was glad that he had done away with the half hearted attempts to protect their honour, maybe he could hear the ticking clock as loudly as she could. She would make sure that every second was spent wisely.

After a stretch of time that might have been a minute or an hour, Dara gently began to coax Nahri onto her back. Her wild curls met the pillow gladly, letting him lean over and using the leverage of his hands in his hair to keep him close. Her leg, still tangled in sheets, bent softly at the knee and pressed against his hip, encouraging him to move closer.

“Nahri…” He breathed against her lips like a prayer, breaking the kiss for the sweetest second. One hand slipped from her waist to gently take her knee and hold it closer to her body. Even though the sheets, she could feel the heat of Dara’s flesh. He combined that heat with gentle kisses against the column of her throat, encouraging her to let her head roll back against the pillows. Nahri let out a stuttered breath as she closed her eyes, letting his lips press against the pulse point of her throat.

The summer heat compared with the warmth radiating from Dara made every single layer of fabric between them unbearable, Nahri suddenly wanted to be rid of each one. She opened her eyes and found Dara watching her with eyes that she could only describe, embarrassingly, as smouldering. “Get this off, before I rip it off.” She warned, plucking his shirt playfully in a way that did not match her tone.

Dara had to sit up to do so, ridding himself of the item of clothing deftly. Nahri took advantage of the space between them to completely remove the sheets between them, leaving her in just the cream coloured silk pyjamas she’d gone to sleep in. He discarded the shirt at the end of her bed, moving back to lean over her once more, left in his baggy trousers. Nahri didn’t bother to wonder where his boots had gone. “This what you had in mind?” He asked curiously, twirling her curls around his finger, propped up by one elbow.

“Much better.” She assured him, an easy smile on her lips as she enjoyed the feel of her curls slipping across his skin. Nahri cupped his cheek for a second before letting her fingers dance around the bare skin of his chest, drawing nonsensical patterns against his skin. Then she leaned up and kissed him once, relieved when they fell back into an already familiar rhythm.

Dara moved closer, close enough that their hips were pressed together and Nahri had to bite Dara’s lip to stop herself from moaning. The bite however did elicit a groan from the Afshin, swallowed by Nahri’s kiss. The sound of his pleasure, because of her, made Nahri feel drunk on just the slightest taste. She would wring a million of those sounds from him if she could, she decided as she took the hand from his waist and encouraged it upwards before sliding her hands back into his hair.

He caught the meaning, cupping her breast firmly and Nahri arched her spine towards his hand to signal her approval. After a few moments, Dara gently encouraged the silk of her shirt to slip up Nahri’s skin, till there was nothing between his hand and her breast. There was no hesitation in his movements as he sought to trade his pleasured noises for Nahri’s. She gave them easily, especially as his thumb brushed over her nipple.

Nahri gave as good as she got, pressing her hips up against Dara’s to create friction. The bare skin exposed by Dara’s workings with her shirt pressed against Dara’s torso. She smirked in triumph when Dara pulled from her lips to rest his forehead on the pillow besides her, making a muffled sound that might have been a curse word. It felt good to make him quake. He let out a deep sigh, his breath warm against her neck, before he kissed her neck once more, languidly like they had all the time in the world.

“Dara, please…” Nahri whispered softly into his ear, letting him hear the urgency in her voice. The need in her skin and the fear that their time would soon be done.

He responded by pressing a reassuring single kiss to the spot underneath her ear. He didn’t tease her, ask her what she meant, he knew what she meant. He could hear the gravity in her plea. He pulled back to meet her eyes for a moment before kissing her sweetly, slowly. His hands left her skin and met it again at the waistband of her pants, hooking his thumbs into the fabric and pushing the fabric down her body. Nahri lifted her hips to help him in his efforts. She moved her hands to repeat the motion with Dara and then swept her palms up his sides to rest on his shoulders.

One hand came to her hip, holding her like she was precious. Nahri gasped softly against Dara’s lips when his fingers came to brush against her clit. She could feel, practically see the smirk on his face as his fingers became slick with wetness and her breathing became hitched. His calloused fingers worked slowly, wringing a few more whines from Nahri whilst he could.

His hand vanished for a moment and Nahri resisted the urge to pout against his lips. A moment later, both hands were on her hips and Nahri felt the head of his cock against her entrance, her heart thumping in her chest, her cheeks red with arousal. She was glad that she lived alone, there would be no disguising the noises she was making now. Dara’s lips left hers and began to kiss along her throat once more, so her lips would be right next to hers when he slipped inside her.

Nahri’s nails dug into Dara’s shoulder as he slowly slipped his full length inside her. If she’d thought that holding Dara was heat, this was an inferno. She would gladly let it scald her. Her eyes stayed close, focusing on the sensations across her skin as Dara paused a moment, squeezing her hip in one hand. A moment of perfect stillness and being together for them both to savour before he became to move inside her.

She countered every thrust with a roll of her hips, letting him set the pace and letting herself get lost in the feeling. The whole time, Dara kissed and sucked at the skin of her throat with no reason or rhyme, letting out stammered, hot breaths against her jugular. Nahri couldn’t bring herself to care about whether this was a bad idea or what would happen if they were caught or whether anyone would see the marks. She cared about this moment, and right now, it was just them. The entire city beyond her walls was forgotten to her. Heat coiled in her stomach, tightness building as her breaths became heavier.

The closer she came to the peak of her pleasure, the more she needed to see Dara’s face. She moved a hand to grip his jaw firmly and bring his face closer to hers so their noses were a few inches apart. When she opened her eyes, Dara’s eyes were blown wide with arousal, watching her with a look of adoration that almost made her look away with its intensity. She fought it, she kept her eyes locked on his. She hoped that the look on her face made him feel the same, everyone should have someone look at them like Dara was looking at her.

“Nahri…” He breathed softly, a tone to match the look on his face. Full of adoration that perversely reminded her of the worship due to her family line. He looked at her like he worshipped her. She found herself unable to speak, her pleasure too much to think about words. There was so much she wanted to say, she half thought. “It’s okay, I’ve got you, let go…” He assured her gently.

So she did. Nahri came with a wordless cry of pleasure that she did nothing to stifle. Let the entire street hear her if they wanted. Her belly tightened inexplicably for a moment before she was allowing her body to bask in whatever pleasure it had to offer. She heard Dara groan gutturally in pleasure as he reached his own climax. Her eyes fluttered shut for a mere second, overwhelmed for a mere moment by the feeling of him inside her as he came.

Dara breathed heavily as he tucked his head into the place where her neck met her shoulder. Nahri pressed her cheek into his temple and closed her eyes for a second, her own breath evening out. Their bodies sat together perfectly, sweat on Nahri’s skin mixing with the ash on Dara’s. She wanted to lie here forever, she thought as she listened to her heartbeat in her eyes, slowly returning to normal. The only sound besides their breathing.

“Nahri?” Dara asked, his words a little muffled by her hair and pillow. Dara pushed himself up, propped up on his elbow as he looked down at her. There was a look in his eyes that she was afraid to name because she knew she wouldn’t like the answer. She gently held his bicep in one hand, the other laid over his heart.

“Yes?” She spoke softly, almost afraid that her voice wouldn’t return when she commanded it.

He shook his head. “Nevermind…” He whispered softly, leaning down to press a gentle kiss to her forehead. “You should sleep. I can’t have an exhausted doctor on my conscience.” He told her as his free hand came to brush her sweat matted hair from her face. Nahri nodded gently, unsure whether to push him on what he meant to say.

“You’ll stay until I fall asleep?” It was a statement but she spoke it like a question. Her previous blasé attitude about being heard was gone now, her voice quiet. She feared he would say no and she would have to watch him leave.

Dara’s eyes softened and he nodded. After some rearranging of bodies and clothes, Dara ended up on his back. Nahri settled her head on Dara’s chest and let him wrap an arm around her to keep her close. Her curls tumbled down her back and onto the bed as he pulled the sheets back over her. “Rest, Nahri…” He murmured gently, lifting the hand she’d laid on his chest and kissing her palm with a gentleness that could only be love.

She wanted to stay awake, she wanted to fight the tiredness in her bones. She wanted to ask Dara a million questions but her eyelids became heavier with every second and her breaths became deeper and she was soon trapped in the space between wakefulness and dreaming. In the second before she completely lost conscience, she thought she heard Dara murmur something into her hair that she didn’t catch. She couldn’t make her lips form the words to ask him what he wanted to say.

When she woke, she was alone. Nahri was still in the bedsheets, just as she’d gone to sleep. There was no Dara, no evidence that he’d ever been here. No indentations where he’d slept in the bed, no calling cards or favours on the bedside. No marks on her skin where his kisses had been too hot. Nahri looked around the empty room, trying to fight back tears as she tried to accept that Dara had not been here. That her mind had run away with her from all the thoughts of the Afshin since the scout had returned.

She lay in bed, staring at the ceiling and trying to conjure the strength to stop missing him once again. Nahri needed to find it within herself to let that pain become a fading bruise once more, to stop poking at it like it wouldn’t hurt. Dara had been right, she had people who needed her. She had things that she needed to do. He had not left so she could sit here feeling sorry for herself, she had to make it worth something.

With that thought in mind, she let her feet touch the floor of her bedroom and walked to the window to greet the day and whatever obstacles it brought.

**Author's Note:**

> So, should I write a reverse for Dara? lol.


End file.
